Supra Man, Oh Man!

When a Fremont real estate agent http://www.tricityhome.com/index.html sells homes in Fremont, Newark and Union City, that Fremont real estate agent must also trust a lot of new technology to work together at critical moments. Most of the time technology cooperates, but sometimes it does not. Bay East Association of Realtors, had a mandatory Supra Lock Box update a few years ago which granted Fremont real estate agents the opportunity to trade in the old, grey key lock box’s technology for the new, blue technology. The new locks worked well and offered infra-red connectivity, a way for some Fremont real estate agents who sell homes in Fremont to downloaded an app, connect directly to the lock box to open the box and receive data straight to their smart phones. That was a step in the right direction for both Supra and Fremont real estate agents who sell homes in Fremont. The new blue boxes seemed to work fine.

Recently however, the association offered Fremont real estate agents newer, sleeker blue infra-red tech lock boxes (shown above). They are much taller than their recent replacements. But, woe to those Fremont real estate agents who had to sell Fremont homes using the new Supra Lock Box just days after their release. Many did not work. I mentioned “critical moments” earlier because one needs to consider the time and effort that a Fremont real estate agent puts into corralling different family members after work and getting Fremont home sellers and their Fremont real estate agents to set up the showings at a particular time.

So, there was yours truly staring at one of those new fangled lock boxes with a new home buyer and family. Everyone showed up, happy to be there to see the inside of the home of their dreams. We all walked up to the lock box, admired the new design and I then transmitted the infra-red signal from my device. 3-2-1... Nothing. After the 5th time and what seemed to be an eternity, I called the Fremont agent who was supposed to allow access for me and my home buyers. Apparently disheveled, he exclaimed that I was the 10th call as a result of his new blue lock box failures. Needless to say, we could not see the home, nor could we do a single thing about it. That was technology not cooperating at a critical moment. We had to pack up and leave and go to the next house. Hoping the next listing agent did not get on of these state-of-the-art lockboxes placed on the house yet.

Shortly after that experience, I purchased the iPhone 4s. Now, I use what is called a “Supra Key FOB” or just plain old “FOB” to open the Supra Lock Boxes together with the iPhone and an iPhone app. The FOB is a small quarter-sized infra red modem that, once plugged in to the bottom of my iPhone, can send a secure signal to the new blue Supra Lock boxes. The app also allows me to check stats off my lock boxes and much more. I was a little disappointed that I still had to carry a FOB around on my key chain, as the FOBs can and have popped out of its carrier. But, after a few uses of the new FOB, once all is connected correctly, it hasn’t failed me yet. By Jeff Pereyda